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Showing posts with label Budapest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budapest. Show all posts

Friday, 30 May 2014

Back in the U.S.

Sarasota, Florida

The flights back were fairly pleasant. I watched five movies on the Atlantic leg from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Mrs. Phred hit the courts at The Meadows the morning after we arrived.

We're ready to pull out and go see the USA on Sunday morning.


Today I replaced the RV tires and the two big six volt "house" batteries on the RV...I hooked them up incorrectly and killed all the 12 volt and AC power in the coach. After calling around, I found a tech person who managed to reset several obscure breakers and get the RV out of darkness....it's discouraging to get more stupid with each passing year...

The first thing that happened on the Europe trip was that in Barcelona I stumbled on a traffic divider and skinned up my hand badly, broke my camera and bruised my ribs.

After that I left a white dress shirt (handmade in Bangkok) in the Florence hotel room...

The loss of my green English umbrella (that cost 50 pounds) in Venice has been previously reported.

The security in the Budapest airport found my favorite switchblade knife in my carry on and confiscated it...

In Atlanta Mrs. Phred made me pitch a corkscrew/knife combo before proceeding though yet another luggage inspection.

Acceptable losses in exchange for memories...


On our last days in Budapest we went to see the Hungarian National Museum and the bronze shoes on the bank of the Danube....to see the shoes, you go to the Parliament building and look left along the Danube River. About 400 yards down the river bank are 50 pair of bronze shoes.


These shoes are a subtle reminder of the Jews who were handcuffed or tied together, shot, and dumped into the Danube by the Arrow Cross Hungarians in 1945. Also, check wiki about the siege of Budapest, which might be the most horrific thing that you've never heard about...




Friday, 23 May 2014

The Most Dangerous Thing in a Combat Zone

Is an officer with a map.


We split up in Budapest in the morning. Mrs. Phred wants to do the Synagogue tour and I want to see the Terror Museum which discusses the excesses of the Arrow Cross movement during WWII and the Soviet occupation which ended in 1981..


 In the afternoon we get together and walk across the Danube to Buda. We take the funicular to the top and eat lunch in a quiet restaurant in a courtyard not frequented by tourists.


 Most everything we see has been rebuilt after being reduced to rubble by allied bombing.


 The Hungarian Parliament on the Danube. .


 Both the Nazis and the Commies used the building that houses the Terror Museum as a place to interrogate subversives. A lot of people disappeared here.


 437,000 Jews were sent from Budapest to Death camps in the final days of WWII.


 Mrs. Phred's Synagogue pictures are very beautiful.


 This is a symbolic tree with the names of a few of the victims.


The Arrow Cross people were very nasty. To save bullets they would tie a bunch of Jews together and shoot one and let him drag the rest into the Danube.


It will be so wonderful to be home again on Sunday...


 Mrs. Phred does not really care for Hungarian plum brandy.


Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Budapest

Today we walked out to Hero's Square and the Zoo. I ride the old wooden roller coaster twice. Mrs. Phred is satisfied with one time.

Love me two times, babe
'Cause I'm goin' away
Love me two time, girl
One for tomorrow
One just for today
-The Doors


Everywhere we walk I'm imagining soviet tanks rolling down the street.


But the music and goulash soup is very good.


 The opera house..


 This statue of Franz Listz has very long fingers. I consider him to be the 2nd greatest virtuoso piano player of all the. The greatest is, of course, currently living as a semi-recluse in Chiang Mai, Thailand.


 Buda castle across the river on the hill.


 I forget what this is...


 More castle


 Mrs. Phred in Hero's square...a fitting backdrop for an aging Civil Rights freedom fighter.


 City park and swimming hole...setting up for summer...


 Ivy.


 We bought our tickets home this week...can't wait to get on the road with the RV...


Duck pate with green pea paste, raisins and fava beans.


Gizzard salad.



Sort of meatloaf flavored potato soup with little rabbit burgers.


 Mrs. Phred orders a pig knuckle.